Communication systems and cellular communication systems, in general, are well known. Planning and operating a cellular communication system requires the evaluation of very large amounts of data relating to such matters as transmitter output power, handover status of mobile communication units, geographical areas of high or low signal quality, and the like. Moreover, this data is often inter-related making review and comprehension in tabular form a near impossibility. However, to properly plan and/or operate the cellular communication system it is essential that this data, as well as the inter-relationships, be thoroughly understood.
The need to evaluate large amounts of highly inter-related data is never more true than in planning and operating code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular communication systems. The unique features of CDMA, for example, multiple mobile communication units sharing a single communication resource (i.e., a radio channel) and soft handover (i.e., the mobile communication unit being in simultaneous communication with a plurality of base stations), as compared to other cellular communications technologies necessarily leads to complex and highly inter-related system performance data. One will readily appreciate that an effect within a CDMA system, for example, a base station power output increase, may have any number of causes, and is likely to have a number of contributing factors and effects.
In traditional communication system planning and operation, the system engineer would evaluate, typically in tabular or printed graph form, data relating to predicted or actual system performance. However, the highly complex nature of the data generated by modern, substantially more complex, communications systems greatly reduces the effectiveness of such activity. Therefore a need exists for methods and apparatus for displaying information in a communication system which allow for the visualization and ready comprehension of the communication system performance by a system operator.